Migration: Leaving Everything Behind

Since one of the themes of The Joy Luck Club was migration, it would be a good idea to write a little about migration, “the movement of people across a specified boundary for the purpose of establishing a new or semi-permanent residence” (In depth Resource). This was an academic definition of migration. Many researches have been done about migrants and migration and their effects on globalization, economy and so on, but here I want you to know a little about the emotional aspect of migration.

Tired of being worried for a long time, the woman looks at her husband pleading:
: I’m sick of being alone for two years. I can’t see your vacant place at dinner again. You even were not here when our son was born. Last time after you left home, Hamid kept crying until night and he became sick for one month. Please, not this time. Don’t leave me here.
– So what do you say? I am tired of being far from you too. I am worried all the time that what are you doing here in this lonely place.
The next day, the husband comes excitedly to his wife.
– I have decided to take you with myself. Let’s go to Iran. We can be together and you can be more comfortable too.
In just a few days, the wife starts packing their bags. She is preparing for going to another country – to migrate. She gives many things away, her favorite dishes, her favorite clothes with embroideries that she had made by her hands and all the beautiful things that she had gathered. She was giving them away since she was going to somewhere else that was not like Afghansitan. People in Iran were not wearing what she used to; they did not like what she liked. In months, they are leaving their hometown, where they had been born and grown up, where they had learnt to talk and play. The woman, while leaving her village, is looking at the house which her son started to walk in. the man was looking at the yard and the trees that he had planted, they were young and green. Shedding tears, both of them leave their home and wish to have a good life in Iran, to be together.
***
After twenty years, they are all together, the man, the woman and their children. They are together but something is left behind – their country, nationality and memories. The children have finished school. They have learnt to say Madar to their Abay (mother), to wear dark and gray clothes instead of the bright pink and yellow clothes. They are almost Iranian when they decide to return. All are excited to see Afghanistan again. They start packing their bags again. They had been looking for finding dresses to look like what they could remember from Afghanistan. Leaving another home behind, they reach to their dream country, but they find themselves in another world. Everything has changed since twenty years ago and now they wonder how they can adapt another environment!

Advertisements

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

One Response to Migration: Leaving Everything Behind

This story sounds to be true story. This story somehow matches my parents’ story as well. When I was a child, my father used to stay in city, Kathmandu for his job, and my mother and I used to stay in home with my uncles, aunts, and grandmother. My mother used to wish to be with my father, and guess what my mother wish came true. Now, my mother and brothers are together with my father. I think now it’s my turn to wish to be with my family. I know my wish be fulfilled soon as my mother’s did.